MUMBAI: India would play host for the first time to an international turtle conference. The 30th annual turtle symposium – "The World of Turtles" is coming to Goa in 2010 and it is for the first time that the symposium is coming to the South Asian region. The conference would be held from April 27-29.

This event is being jointly hosted and organized by sea turtle conservation groups and research organizations as well as institutions that work on marine environment issues across India and South Asia. Based on previous annual symposia of the ISTS, the organisors are expecting up to 700 participants, from as many as 50 countries across the world. The ISTS annual symposium is truly unique, drawing an enormous number and diversity of people interested in these intriguing animals and their habitats.

“Sea turtles inhabit the land and the sea. They connect the shallow nearshore waters to the open sea, cold temperate to warm tropical waters. They migrate across ocean basins. And through several thousands of years, they have connected us ecologically and culturally to the sea. The thirtieth annual symposium on sea turtle biology and conservation will seek to explore these connections and focus on the world they live in. The world of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, open seas and sandy beaches. The world of people, living and working on the coast or at sea; of fishing cultures and livelihoods. All connected by sea turtles and by us,” the organizers said.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests would partner the event. Greenpeace, Bombay Natural History Society, Mysore-based Nature Conservation Foundation, Turtle Action Group, Wildlife Protection Society of India, WWF-India, Zoo Outreach Organisation, Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology are among the co-organisors. 

The 2010 symposium will attempt to focus on the world that sea turtles inhabit. It will also draw attention to the concerns of fishing communities, especially those across the South Asian region, within the conservation paradigm and will address how marine conservation issues can be approached without jeopardizing – but rather by enhancing – the livelihoods of communities that depend on these resources and the same environments that are needed by the turtles.

In this context, discussions will also focus on traditional fishing communities, whose practices have often been questioned by the conservation community, but whose contributions to maintaining and ensuring the “health” of the marine ecosystems must be acknowledged and addressed.